More on Ginny

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 33132

Penny wrote:
>Her 
> development, book by book, is consistently that of a younger child 
than 
> just one year younger than Ron.  

Y'know, I just don't agree.  My sister-in-law is 49, acts like a 
melodramatic, spastic 18 year old...but that doesn't make her a not-
realistic human.  Annoying, yes; improbable/unrealistic, no.

I gather that everyone who has decried Ginny as being written as a 6 
year old instead of her actual 10/11/12/etc. has only been around 
real kids of those ages when they've been acting mature.  Well, if 
all we ever saw of Hermione in book one was an example of her hyper-
bossy side and an example of her locking herself in the bathroom to 
cry because someone said something mean about her...we'd probably 
label her as immature for an 11-year-old, too.  Rather, Hermione is 
more developed ~ we see more of her character, so that we see both 
the immature and the mature.

On Ginny's behalf, we only get the immature bits.  Still, on my part, 
Ginny strikes me as perfectly recognizable, given any combination of 
baby of the family/only girl/over-protective parents/smart older 
brothers.  She's reactionary; prone to speak and act without 
thinking; dealing with both wanting to become her own person as well 
as the natural fear of 'leaving the nest' so to speak; and in general 
being a kid.  

She's no more bumbling than Neville; they both do stupid and 
embarassing things because they're immature and uncertain.  The only 
difference is that Neville is actually given a chance to redeem 
himself on occasion, due to his greater part.

She's no more emotional than Hermione, to whit: she has schoolgirl 
crushes, has been mortified by public embarassment, and will cry when 
something horrid (to her perspective) has happened.  The main 
differences are that she's more expressive of her emotions, and that 
her first year at Hogwarts she was possessed by an evil spirit and 
made to kill things, sic large snakes on peers, and deface school 
property (all of which she recalled to some extent, either via a 
dream-like sensation or the pure fact of putting 2 and 2 together to 
get 4), until the point at which the spirit tried to kill her.  Shame 
on her for acting like an abused, agonizingly stressed-out and 
frightened youngster during her one time in the spot-light. 

She's also no less unsure of herself than Ron, which is no surprise.  
They both act like they have really smart big brothers to live up to, 
except that Ginny also acts like she was the overprotected little 
sister who has not been put through the school of sibling hard knocks 
as a little brother would have.

In the end, she's marginally important to the overall story with the 
one exception of her role in CoS, so personally I really don't feel a 
need to know her better than I already do.  On the other hand, I *do* 
have a solid notion of her as a character, despite her small role, 
and I just want to throw in my pence as feeling she's normal and not 
particularly annoying, especially for her age relative to each book.

Mahoney